Back from an excellent week of camping in Cypress Hills so back to the grind in all manner of ways including here on the blog. A quick and easy update with one of my most played songs during the trip (which I think I’ve posted before but it’s worth posting again)…
Going camping so may be out of radio contact for the next few days. (Also hoping to get some new drywall and paint on this blog via a contractor while I’m away.)
In the meantime, some post-apocalyptic blues…
Former Saskatchewan Premier and Healthcare Commission Chair, Roy Romanow celebrates Canada Day with a column in the Globe & Mail on perhaps our most cherished Canadian institution.
Compared to what’s happening in the US right now where the Supreme Court had to rule on President Obama’s healthcare plan just last week to try to extend even basic coverage to the millions of Americans who have no healthcare access, I am really happy to live in a country where our values include treating healthcare as a fundamental right. It’s only been 50 years which is hard to believe but I’m glad that battle was fought (and won) long ago.
It is no surprise to me that Saskatchewan was at the forefront of this journey. The province’s citizens learned many hard lessons during the desperation of the Great Depression and the sacrifices of the Second World War. They learned about generosity, about hardship and fairness, about boom and bust. They learned about the imperative for co-operative action. They came to understand that the notion of shared destiny was key to our existence.
Now the battle shifts to trying to maintain and improve our healthcare system in the face of numerous threats – political, economic, corporate – that work to undermine it.
Happy Canada Day!
…is that it made it permissible for people to wear super-hero costumes in public year-round. (I’m behind the camera so you can’t see what Pace made me wear on our Adventure Walk tonight!)
I’m not sure who’d enjoy this movie more – Pace or me?
(via MetaFilter)
Librarians rejoice as the first thing this artificial brain recognizes when it is turned loose on the Internet? Pictures of cats!
(All kidding aside, this feels like another one of those amazing milestones for technology which keep coming at an ever-accelerating pace.)
I think I may have posted at least one of these links before but here’s a collection of a few cool stories about how iDevices (iPhones & iPads) have out-of-the-box accessibility features and add-on apps that are changing the lives of visually impaired people in majorly significant ways (that second story about how a new iPhone allows a visually impaired man to “see” the sunset for the first time is particularly moving):
I love Quora and could probably post a question a week from their awesome weekly e-digest where they summarize some of the most active posts from the Topics you subscribe to. For example, this week, they had a question and answers on “What is the Most Valuable Lesson You’ve Learned In Your Professional Life?”
Here’s one sample answer:
The fundamental difference between smart people and wise people. Smart people reach answers fast without much consideration of alternatives, and who have amazing ability to justify anything, using their big brains. Wise people who know they are often wrong, and so can admit and learn from their mistakes, take more time to make decisions when it is not an emergency, and generally come to better solutions if they are not working. Think of the difference between oh so smart Henry Kissinger and Cho En Lai who ran rings around him when Nixon went to China for example, or in business between the ever self justifying Alan Greenspan and Alan Mullaly who actually turned round Boeing and Ford. It is better to be wise than smart. Of course the wise people also have learned the sort of lessons Edmond Lau has posted, who sounds wise and I would only add admit and learn from mistakes as a specific tool to combine with his list
Saw this meme on Facebook and thought I’d share since June 25 is halfway to Christmas and since it fits with Music Monday, why not post a Christmas song today?
I’ve posted this one before but every time I listen to it, I just love it more and more. So sweet and funny and perfect. (Okay, found a different in-studio version – cool!)
Saw this idea on Reddit and thought – wow, that’s amazing.
If only I knew of a kid that was starting kindergarten this fall that I could do this for! 😉
